Takeover time

Despite European sovereign debt woes and stubbornly high levels of unemployment in the US, the engineering and construction sector managed to keep smiling in 2010, with new, larger companies emerging from the credit crunch. the global mergers and acquisitions market may be set for a better year Mladen Petrov ACS, Spain's biggest public construction group, started the year with some big news. The company succeeded in snapping up a stake of more than 30 pct in Hochtief, a move which was perceived as a key step towards taking overall control of its German-based rival. According to German law, going above the 30 pct threshold allows the purchase of shares on the market without the need to launch a new takeover bid. Earlier, in December 2010, Hochtief sold a 9.1 pct stake to a Qatari investment fund to dilute ACS' holding and force it to improve its offer. The news about ACS' increased stake was naturally greeted with a lot of media attention. ACS, an abbreviation for Actividades de Const